Lake Manapouri

Lake Manapouri, lake, southwestern South Island, New Zealand, the deepest lake in the country. It is one of the Southern Lakes, found in the highland section of Fiordland National Park, which were formed by the glacial deepening of an existing stream valley accompanied by damming of the valley with a moraine (glacial debris). Manapouri derives its name from a Maori word meaning “lake of the sorrowing heart,” with reference to a legend that its waters are the tears of dying sisters. It has a surface area of 55 square miles (142 square km) and a shoreline of 85 miles (137 km) extending into South, West, North, and Hope arms. From its surface, 608 feet (185 m) above sea level, the lake reaches to a depth of 1,455 feet (444 m). It drains a basin of 1,785 square miles (4,623 square km).

The lake empties into the Waiau River at the town of Manapouri, a tourist centre and one of the few permanently inhabited places in the region. The Manapouri Lake Control Dam, which was completed in 1975, regulates the lake’s water levels for hydroelectric power: a generating plant that was built on the shore, 700 feet (213 m) below ground, uses the lake’s water discharged into the Tasman Sea via a tunnel.

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